Orange harvesting and hauling costs in .1976-77 are estimated to
have increased to 153 percent of the 18-year average, while grapefruit
and tangerine picking and hauling costs are estimated to have increased
to 155 and 141 percent, respectively, (Tables 6, 7, 8) of the 18-year
average. Of the items that make up total picking and hauling costs for
oranges, picking labor is the item accounting for the largest proportion
of the total. Accounting for 50 percent of the total, it increased
steadily from 1959-60 through 1973-74 and then declined slightly. Other
labor, however, has increased and continues to increase (27 percentage
points in the last two years). Finally, fuel, maintenance and deprecia-
tion has increased strongly since 1968-69. Similar information and
trends for grapefruit and tangerines is shown in Tables 7 and 8.
 The relatively slow increase in picking labor costs for tangerines
 (Table 8) reflects a change in the picking method. During the 18-year
 period the proportion of the tangerines individually clipped has declined.
 Clipping involves manually handling each piece of fruit and using a shear
 to remove each fruit from the tree. Because clipping tangerines reduces
 a picker's capacity, pickers generally require a higher per box wage when
 clipping is required. As the proportion of tangerines pulled rather than
 clipped has increased, the cost of picking tangerines has decreased
 relative to the cost of picking oranges and grapefruit.
 In addition to the type of fruit and grove conditions, several other
economic factors have been found to be related to the piece rate for
citrus pickers. Walker [22] has shown that the most important determinants
of the piece rate for citrus pickers are the nonfarm wage rate and the
unemployment rate. The results indicate that the piece rate and the non-
farm wage rate in food and kindered industries in Florida are positively
related and that the piece rate and the Florida unemployment rate are
negatively related.


 FRESH PACKING AND SELLING COSTS


 While over 90 percent of oranges, 60 percent of grapefruit and 25
 percent of tangerines are generally used in processed citrus products